DotCloud closes $10M Series A round

The PaaS startup helps developers deploy their apps and gets support from big names

DotCloud, a second-generation PaaS company that helps developers deploy their apps, on Tuesday announced the close of its $10 million Series A round, which was led by Benchmark Capital and Trinity Ventures. The new financing comes just weeks after DotCloud received $800K in seed funding from some impressive angels, including Ron Conway, Chris Sacca, Jerry Yang, and more. Furthermore, the company announced that Yahoo founder Jerry Yang and Engineering Manager at Apple, Marc Verstaen, will be joining DotCloud's board of directors.

Founded in 2010 by Solomon Hykes and Sebastien Pahl, the startup, which is currently in beta, allows developers to focus on coding while DotCloud takes care of deployment, including provisioning, configuration, monitoring, backups, scaling and more. But the company provides a unique angle to the second-generation PaaS market in that it provides developers with the flexibility and control to write apps in different languages and try out different frameworks and databases.

“We noticed DotCloud’s success reaching IT, developers and consultants, and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to support something big," said Peter Fenton, general partner at Benchmark Capital and DotCloud board member. "Solomon, Sebastien and team have huge potential to change the way software is produced and deployed."

The PaaS market as a whole is heating up, the company claims, particularly among second-generation PaaS technologies, which offer the same simplicity and control of first-generation PaaS technologies while supporting different platforms.

“A new breed of application platform tools is emerging, said Jerry Yang in a prepared statement. "By combining old technologies and approaches with the flexibility needed in today’s landscape, DotCloud will set a new standard for building applications in the cloud.”

The new funds from this round will be used to support DotCloud's growth, the company said in its announcement.